Pumpkin Pie
by Irish Thorn
Summary: Fred and George host a Halloween party every year at the shop, this year is going to be just a little bit different...


_This fic was written for the Twin Exchange October monthly challenge. Please head on over and vote for my story! Enjoy!_

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><p>Well, it wasn't as if she hadn't known it was coming. It had been two years since they'd gotten together, after all. It was well known that the Weasley twins loved Halloween, and everything associated with it. This was the thirteenth year of being around the Weasley twins on the holiday, so she really shouldn't be so surprised.<p>

Hermione Granger stood in a room full of people, some she knew, most she didn't, covered in— well, perhaps we should start from the beginning. Not the very beginning, as that would take far too long, but a few days ago, anyhow.

It was three days before the big Weasley Halloween blow-out at Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, the most happening place in Diagon Alley, and preparations were in full swing. If one were to walk into the apartment that the twins shared above the shop, they would see quite the commotion. Fred and Hemione were making all kinds of plans to decorate the shop the day of, but it was going to be tricky; Ginny and George were planning out the food and what things they were going to have to ask Mrs. Weasley to help with; Harry and Ron were playing wizard chess and eating what little food the twins actually had in their apartment.

A bright flash of green light came from where Hermione and Fred were sitting, capturing the attention of the room's other occupants. Hemione let out a tinkling laugh, looking down at something that was laid out on the floor in front of her. Fred had a faint smile on his face, but he was looking at his girlfriend of two years, not what was on the floor in front of her.

"Oi, Fred! What's going on?" Ron looked as confused as ever, but was the first one to find his voice, oddly enough.

"'MIone's just making a few things for us to put up in the shop. Come take a look." Everyone got up to come see what the talented witch had come up with this time. They were all a bit surprised to see a plain jack-o'-lantern staring back up at them.

"Err… great job, 'Mione. I don't get what's so funny though," Harry was starting to worry a bit for his old friend's sanity.

"I'm going to make about twenty of these to put up in random places around the shop, but watch this." Hermione put the smiling pumpkin up on a shelf and motioned for Harry to come walk in front of it. He hesitated, wondering what was going to happen. He really should have been more suspicious from the get-go, after all, she spent an awful lot of time with Fred to not have come up with something diabolical. "What's the matter, Harry? I thought you wanted to see why I was laughing so hard." The taunt had the desired effect on the young man, causing him to bravely step forward and walk in front of the jack-o'-lantern.

Soon, laughter rang out through the room as Harry Potter, the-boy-who-lived, stopped dead in his tracks and started singing and dancing to the song "The Monster Mash" by Bobby Pickett. At the conclusion of the song, once everyone stopped laughing, Hermione explained that if more than one person walked past them at the same time, a flash mob would break out.

"That's brilliant, 'Mione!" George was grinning from ear to ear.

"Well, she is my girl," Fred cut in, giving her a passionate kiss as she leaned toward where he was sitting. She leaned back, sitting down on the floor next to him. Everyone else took seats on the floor, too, apparently done with all of the other things they'd been working on.

"Maybe we should call it quits for the night, guys. I really have to get back to the boys." Ginny was referring to her husband, Blaise Zabini and their two month old son, Dante. She made for the fireplace, grabbing some floo powder from the mantle and tossing it into the dying flames, causing them to roar to life. "Have a good night, everyone!" With that, she was gone.

"We'd probably better get going, too. It's after midnight!" Harry stood and followed Ginny's path toward the fireplace, he and Ron were roommates at Grimmauld Place, and both were loving the bachelor life.

"G' night, all," Ron joined Harry and the two disappeared in green flames.

The remaining three in the room stood up and began cleaning up their mess and organizing all of the plans that were still lying about the floor. George put away the wizard's chess bored sitting on the coffee table, Hermione picked up all of the papers on the floor and set them in a pile on the kitchen counter, and Fred wandered into the kitchen and started rummaging through the fridge.

"Would you like a piece of pie?" Fred looked at his girlfriend over the top of the refrigerator door. She smiled back sweetly and nodded. He plated up the single piece of pumpkin pie, put a big dollop of whipping cream on top, grabbed two forks, and sat next to her at the kitchen counter. He handed over a fork and motioned for her to have the first bite. She complied, pumpkin was her favorite kind of pie.

"Mmm! Your mum is really the best chef there is!" The two of them devoured the pie quickly, Hemione savoring the very last lick of whipped topping off of her fork. "We should have your mum make pumpkin pie for the party. I'm sure she'd do it."

"Yeah she probably would, I'll add it to the list that Gin and I came up with." George had just walked over and leaned against the counter. He flipped through the pages that Hermione had sat there until he pulled out the list of food they were going to have. There were about ten Halloween themed foods on the list already. He scribbled pumpkin pie at the end of the list. "I'm off to bed. I'll see you two love birds in the morning."

Hermione had been staying there with the twins for about eight months. She and Fred had taken their relationship to the next level very early on, and she didn't want to go back to not sharing a bed with him. She was hooked on Fred Weasley.

"I'll take this list to your mum's tomorrow morning. I don't have to be to work until noon." Hermione stood up and moved to the couch in the living room, Fred following after he rinsed off their dishes.

"I'm sure she'd like that. George and I will finish making the decorations tomorrow after we close up shop for the evening. I think everyone is going to love your jack-o'-lanterns." The two cuddled on the couch for a bit, talking about a little bit of everything: Hermione's apprenticeship with a couple of goblins at Gringott's, Fred and George expanding the shop into Hogsmeade, Ginny and Blaise's new son.

"I think I'm ready to turn in for the night," Hermione said with a wink, walking off to their shared room. Fred jumped up, running to get to their room first. Hermione's tinkling laugh sounded off down the hallway as the door closed behind them.

—

The next morning, Hermione woke up after Fred had already gone down to open up the shop for the day; looking at the clock on the night stand, she knew that it was time to get up and go see Mrs. Weasley. She got dressed quickly, knowing that she'd have time to come back home and get ready for work if she got going right then. It was nine-thirty when she apparated to The Burrow. She knocked on the back door before letting herself in.

"Mrs. Weasley? Are you here?" She called out when she didn't see the matron in the kitchen like she expected. It wasn't long before she appeared though.

"Hermione, dear, how are you? Would you like a cuppa?" The older witch began bustling about with a tea kettle on the stove as the younger witch took off her jacket and sat at the kitchen table.

"Thanks, Mrs. Weasley; and actually, I have an ulterior motive for my visit this morning: Fred and George's party on Friday. We've come up with a list of food and require your help in making everything. I would be more than happy to come over tomorrow after I get off work and help however I can." Hermione handed over the list that George and Ginny had come with and sat in silence as the other woman looked down through it.

"Oh, nothing on this list is particularly difficult. I'm probably not going to actually make any of the food until the day of, except maybe the pies. I figure about ten pies will do it. You are more than welcome to come over tomorrow evening and give me a hand." The two witches had a nice chat, Hermione leaving before eleven so she could get to work on time. It didn't do to keep the goblins waiting.

—

It was around five 'o'clock the next evening when Hermione arrived at The Burrow. Mrs. Weasley was just pulling out all of the ingredients that they would need, and it looked like quite a bit. There was flour and sugar, real vanilla and fresh pumpkin.

"Hermione, dear, are you ready to get started?" The sweet older woman was so excited for the chance to bake with the young woman that she'd always thought of as a daughter.

"Of course, Mrs. Weasley," Hermione answered from over at the sink where she was washing her hands. Once she was done, she walked over to where all of the ingredients were sitting. She wasn't very good at baking, but she was sure that Mrs. Weasley would be an excellent teacher.

"I wrote out the ingredients for the crust over there, I'm going to start making the filling." pointed to a piece of paper on the counter next to all of the ingredients. It was very quiet in the kitchen for a little while as Hermione precisely mixed the necessary ingredients for pie crust. Between the two witches, they got the pie dough divided and rolled out to put in the pans, and the filling in each one. Mrs. Weasley used a quick flick of her wand to put the first set of pies in the oven.

"So, Hermione, any new gossip?" Mrs. Weasley asked as she busied herself making a pot of tea.

"Not really, ma'am. I think I heard that Neville Longbottom is seeing Luna Lovegood." Hermione sat in one of the kitchen chairs as the older witch finished the tea.

"Oh, I heard from Neville's grandmother that that didn't work out. I guess Luna decided to travel the world for a while, looking for some weird creature or another. I can't recall for the life of me what she called it now," Mrs. Weasley said with a shrug.

"Well that's just too bad. I always liked Luna and Neville would be the best person to keep the girl grounded." Hermione took a sip from the mug that was placed in front of her, savoring the hot liquid as it hit her tongue and slid down her throat. It was starting to get rather cold outside with the weather changing, and she so enjoyed when tea drinking season started.

"I really didn't know the girl, but she seemed sweet." Mrs. Weasley took a drink of her own tea. "Do you know anything about Blaise's friend Pansy? Maybe she and Neville would get along? I do feel for the poor boy; always such a shy thing."

"Yeah he was always pretty quiet. I don't know much about Pansy though. I think the last I heard about her, she was seeing Draco. He's married to Astoria Greengrass now though, so I'm not sure what happened to Pansy." Hermione was now genuinely curious. The girl had always loved to be the center of attention when they went to Hogwarts together, and now she'd completely fallen out of the lime light? It was strange to say the least.

The rest of the evening passed by with bits of gossip here and there, and a plate of the best pot roast she'd ever tasted. With ten pumpkin pies laid out on the counter cooling, a wrapped plate of dinner for Fred and George, and a belly full of about three cups of tea, Hermione left to go back home. When she arrived, she called out for the boys to come get the dinner that their mum had made. The two came from George's room down the hall and climbed up onto the kitchen stools.

"Your mum and I baked all of the pies for the party. She said that she would handle the rest of the foods tomorrow right before the party." The boys nodded that they'd heard as they shoveled the food into their mouths. Hermione just shook her head with a smile as she poured them each a glass of milk to wash everything down. She went into the living room and sat down on the couch, picking up the book she'd been reading off of the coffee table. She was only a few pages in when she felt the couch dip beside of her.

"Thanks for bringing home dinner, 'Mione. Love you." Fred leaned in for a kiss, Hermione obliging.

"I love you, too, Freddy," she answered when he pulled away. "Did you and George ever finish the decorations?" She curled into his side, pulling her feet up under her.

"Yeah. Everything's ready. We are closing the shop early tomorrow so that we can get everything set up. Don't forget that the party is starting at seven."

"I don't get off until eight tomorrow night, Fred. I've already told you this. I can't leave work early, but I'll be there as soon as I can be." Fred nodded, knowing that she had to work.

The two stayed like that until Hermione began to doze off. Fred picked her up, looking at her like she was the most precious thing in the world to him, and carried her to bed. He didn't do much except slip her shoes off and tuck her in, but he gave her a sweet kiss on the forehead, knowing that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with the witch he shared a bed with. He slid into bed beside of her, gently pulling her close to him. Yeah, he definitely wanted that to last forever.

—

She was running late from work. It was already eight twenty-five and she was running to get to the shop. Gringott's was just up the street, so it was actually just as quick to walk home than to apparate or floo. She stopped just outside the door, deciding that she wasn't dressed for the festivities. She changed her conservative cream colored blouse into a dark orange one, and changed her black heels to match. Then, she walked in, sending her briefcase up the stairs to the flat.

She meandered her way through the large crowd of people, quite possibly the largest she'd ever seen in the shop, trying to find Fred. She bumped into Harry by the punch bowl, chatting up a tall, skinny blond witch that she'd never seen before. She gave him a small smile and waved as she walked by the couple. Where was Fred? She thought she caught a glimpse of Ginny's bright red hair over in a corner, but quickly lost sight of her through the crowd.

"Boo! Did I scare you? I thought you'd never get here!" Fred was so excited that he'd finally found his girlfriend. He led her over to where there was a stage set up and cast a sonorous charm on himself. "Good evening everyone. Is everyone having a good time?" There were all kinds of cheers from around the room. "Wonderful! Well, I have something that I've wanted to do for quite some time now." He silently took the charm off of himself and turned to face Hermione. He sank down on one knew to gasps and screams and hushes from the captive audience. "Hermione Jean Granger, I've loved you for years, and want to spend the rest of my life with you. I know that you could do way better than me, but for some reason you've decided not to. Not that I'm complaining!" There were a few scattered laughs from around the room. "I just have one question for you: will you marry me?" There was not a second of hesitation from the woman standing above him.

"Yes!" She grinned, tears clouding her vision as Fred slipped a ring on her finger amidst cheers and screaming from the crowd. He stood up and the two kissed and embraced for a few long seconds. Suddenly, something cold was smashed over top of the newly engaged couple. They both gave a shout as they looked over to see what had just happened. There stood George, empty pie pans in each hand, a huge, stupid smile on his face.

"I'm going to kill you!" Fred took off chasing his twin around the room, leaving Hermione standing on the stage, everyone staring at her, covered in pumpkin pie. She shouldn't be so surprised. She'd been with Fred for two years now, and knew his love for the holiday, she really shouldn't be surprised with George either. She held her head up and walked off the stage, pulling her wand out as she went. She used it to push George in front of one of her jack-o'-lanterns, everyone laughing as he broke out into song and dance. She grabbed Fred and quickly pulled him up the stairs to the flat with her.

"Fancy a shower?" He suddenly forgot about all about his twin and followed his new fiancé up the stairs to clean off all of the pie. Who would have thought that such a happy ending would involve pumpkin pie?

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><p><em>Please review!<em>


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